Soccer fans gather at the Globe Pub on Irving Park Road in Chicago on Feb. 15, 2016, to hear a presentation about starting a North American Soccer League team in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

A former owner of one of Chicago’s most popular soccer bars has been indicted on federal income tax charges alleging he failed to turn over nearly $200,000 to the Internal Revenue Service that his business had withheld from his employees’ paychecks.

The 17-count indictment against Stuart Johnston, the founder of the Globe Pub, comes in the midst of the World Cup tournament — a monthlong event that typically draws thousands of rabid soccer fans to the pub in the 1900 block of West Irving Park Road.

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From 2012 to 2014, Johnston withheld $199,200 from employee paychecks that he was required to pay to the IRS on a quarterly basis but instead kept the money for himself, the charges alleged. The money withheld from employees’ checks were for individual income taxes as well as Social Security and Medicare taxes, the indictment said.

During the same three-year period, Johnston failed to file a personal income tax return or a tax return for the pub, which did business under the name Buffoons Inc., according to the indictment.

Johnston, 54, is scheduled to be arraigned July 5 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Young Kim, records show.

Johnston could not be reached for comment Friday, and court records do not indicate if he has retained an attorney.

Records show Johnston sold his interest in the bar in 2016.

A native of Scotland and former semiprofessional soccer player, Johnston immigrated to Chicago in the 1990s. He opened the Globe in 2004 after noticing that Chicago lacked suitable places to watch soccer, according to news reports.

“That’s why we thought, ‘Yeah, there is a market for this,’” Johnston told ESPN Chicago in 2010. “Soccer isn’t big in America, but there’s a good demand, and if you do it right, the people will come.”

The Globe is widely considered today to be one of the best soccer pubs in the nation. It twice has been named Best Soccer Bar by the U.S. Soccer Federation and in 2014 was voted best sports bar in America by Nightclub and Bar, an industry magazine.